By Mulengera Reporters
The Prime Minister, Robinah Nabbanja has asked Ugandans to continue voting the National Resistance Movement (NRM) in order to enable the Ruling Party fulfill its promise made almost 10 years ago to provide free sanitary pads to girls.
Nabbanja noted, “That is the reason I told you that 16% of our commitment aren’t fulfilled because of money and with the mandate that Ugandans continue to give us as NRM, we shall fulfill all the promises including sanitary pads.”
Her remarks followed a question posed by Joel Ssenyonyi, Leader of Opposition during yesterday’s plenary sitting where he was punching holes into figures provided by Nabbanja on NRM’s progress of fulfilling its promise to Ugandans.
“The Prime Minister in one of the responses told us that this Government has a habit of fulfilling promises, she gave us a glowing figure, I kept wondering the yardstick that she uses. But I wanted to ask based on that, there are promises that you people made that have turned into lies to the people of Uganda. You promised in 2015 free sanitary pads to all girls in I don’t know whether it was kiwani, when are you going to fulfill that promise?” asked Ssenyonyi.
The development comes at the time when Auditor General, Edward Akol in his June 2024 report to Parliament revealed that 64% of the female learners were absent from class due to lack of access to menstrual pads, water and disposal facilities in their schools.
“From interviews/surveys held, audit noted that 64% of the female learners (138 out of 216) indicated that they had been absent from school or class because of menstruation. The main reasons given include: Lack of menstrual materials and sanitation facilities. There is non-prioritization of the establishment of water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools by the District Local Governments,” Auditor General Akol noted.
The details are contained in a Value for Money Audit conducted to assess Government’s efforts through the Ministry of Education to support Menstrual Health and Hygiene in Primary and Secondary schools (both government & private), that revealed lack of commitment by Gov’t to establish sanitation facilities in schools & parents’ failure to provide their children with enough sanitary pads.
“22 of the 48 schools visited (46%) did not provide any emergency pads and other Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management (MHHM) support for female learners and they lacked access to water and appropriate sanitation and menstrual disposal facilities. There is limited parental involvement in the provision of MH support, whereby parents are not providing enough pads, underwear and guidance on menstrual hygiene, which leads to the girls being absent from school,” added Akol.
Menstrual hygiene entails the use of clean menstrual management products to soak menstrual discharge by adolescent girls and women, changeable in privacy as required, alongside access to water, soap, and disposable methods.
However, several studies by academic scholars have cited challenges with MHHM as the main reason for girls being absent from school. These included lack of sanitary pads, poor disposal mechanisms for menstrual materials, embarrassment and fear of teasing related to menstruation by mainly boys, absence of water and separate toilet facilities for girls in many schools.
The Auditor General further noted that there is inadequate capacity building for senior women and senior men teachers (SMT) to provide adequate MHHM support to female learners. As a result of the limited capacity of the SMT to perform their role, there is also limited involvement of male learners in MHHM education and training.
Akol also cited the harmful myths and cultural beliefs that have affected the menstrual health and hygiene of female learners leading to fear, stigma and use of unhealthy and unsafe practices during menstruation and shying away from schools that are contributing to poor menstrual hygiene, which practices he said were more prevalent in the Eastern and Northern regions of Uganda.
The Auditor General issued several recommendations including the need by Government to prioritise the dissemination of guidelines, policies and manuals on MHHM to district local governments, schools and other relevant key stakeholders as well as orientation of key stakeholders on the guidelines, policies and manuals to foster implementation.
The Ministry of Education was also urged to work closely with the Ministry of Finance and the National Curriculum Development Centre to ensure that funding is secured for the review of the primary curriculum and that the review process considers the integration of menstrual hygiene and hygiene messages.
The Auditor General also wants the Ministry of Education to work closely with the Ministry of Water and Environment and the District Local Governments to ensure that projects that are implementing piped water systems in the country prioritize connections at schools and other education institutions to ensure that learners have a reliable access to water within the school premises.
The discussion around Government’s failure to fulfill the provision of sanitary pads followed an earlier concern raised by Luttamaguzi Semakula (Nakaseke South) who castigated Government for condemning him to sleepless nights in his Constituency due to the failure to fulfill a number of Presidential pledges made in his area including the extension of electricity, provision of an ambulance to the health centres, rehabilitation of schools and road repairs.
Luttamaguzi noted, “I no longer sleep well in my constituency of Nakaseke South due to the Presidential pledges. Since you are going to celebrate 39 years of NRM, I want you to update us on these Presidential pledges to the people of Nakaseke. He pledged to rehabilitate Kakonfa Primary School where he used to sleep when he was still a rebel. Then the gravelling of the road that connects Nakaseke to Luwero.”
Nabbanja took to the floor promising to provide responses that would ensure that Luttamaguzi finally gets peaceful sleep, asking him to be patient because there are pledges that have been made and fulfilled in the same area .“I want my brother to have sleep today. You are going to sleep very well because I have the answers. I know there are a number of pledges that are being implemented and you know this. Luwero-Butalangu Road is almost 52% complete. We are currently rehabilitating and making sure we complete Luwero Hospital by Army Brigade things are moving,” said Nabbanja.
It was in the same response that the Premier cited without reference to any report or official document of the progress of NRM in fulfilling its manifesto noting, “49% of all the commitments we made as Government with the people of Uganda during this Kisanja are complete, 39% of others are almost complete. This years I must be sincere with you, the NRM Government is going to perform above 84%.” (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
